Sunday, January 29

Team Ireland retain 3rd in Phillip Island Classic 2017!

Team
Ireland retained 3rd place in the Phillip Island International
Classic for the 2nd year running as the UK claimed 1st.
Solid performances again from Paul Byrne and Derek Sheils meant the privately funded
Irishmen took 3rd place with almost 200 points to spare.

Paul
Byrne again excelled in the individual series to come home in 4th as
newcomer to the event Derek Sheils finished a really credible 7th,
ahead of some well established names such as James Hillier and Peter Hickman.

Race 3 showed
improved returns for Paul and Derek finishing 6th and 7th
respectively as 3 other team mates Dave Johnson, Hilton Hincks and Chris
Campbell also crossed under the chequered flag. Bad luck rained down on the efforts
of Ben Rea, Cormac Conroy and Alexander Pickett however as they were forced to
retire.

Race 4
showed an improvement for Paul Byrne as 4th place beckoned with the
Australian team fighting back in an effort to reclaim the title from the
dominant Jeremy McWilliams led UK team. Derek Sheils bagged another 7th
place on the Tom Dermody Suzuki XR69 ahead of Conor Cummins to secure more
points for the team. Dave Johnson just missed out on an impressive top 10
finish in 11th as Hilton Hincks, Chris Campbell and Alexander
Pickett ended up 16th, 19th and 20th.

Irish
non-riding captain Mike Meskell was delighted with how his team performed.

"We
had some good bikes and some not so good this weekend, but they held
together and we have achieved our goal of getting closer to the top two
teams," Meskell said. "We want to be regarded as a serious competitor
to Australia and the UK, and we will come back bigger and stronger in 2018 with
better bikes, including two XR69s."